José Maria Aznar, was the former Prime Minister of Spain from 1996–2004, and quite a good one. His two terms were subject to all the battles of the rest of Europe. The Euro was introduced, Spain joined the single currency, the Aznar government maintained the previous government’s commitment to join and took political risks to meet the requirements for membership. He introduced a strict budget which the opposition claimed would hurt the disadvantaged, help the rich, and announced a decision to freeze the wages of civil servants which brought protest marches by thousands of civil servants. The Euro was introduced in 1999, and Spanish voters reelected him in 2000 with an outright majority.

Spain became one of the fastest growing economies in the EU in 2001, university reforms, student protests, strikes, demonstrations. Global economic downturn in 2002. At the end of his term, three days before the general election 10 bombs killed 191 people in the March 11, 2004 Madrid train bombings. He founded, in 2010 a Friends of Israel Initiative, to counter the attempts to delegitimize the State of Israel.

Kind of a quickie introduction to one of the world’s most interesting men, who tells us what at least one European believes.